(The prologue to this Doctor's View was: "Leukemia - In The
Family." I have called the present piece "Coping with a Bad Disease" since I believe it goes well beyond leukemia and applies to any "bad disease.")

Our granddaughter Tania was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia a little over a month ago. Since that time, her father and mother have provided other family and friends with almost daily updates on Tania's progress
and their responses to her illness. We have found these updates a valuable means of knowing a little of what is going on, particularly because most of the time we have been 3000 or so miles away from Tania. But even when we were on the scene, we found the "Tania Updates" quite useful.

The following is an excerpt from a recent "Tania Update" by our son Rick, Tania's father. Rick (Frederick M. Hecht) is a physician on the faculty at UCSF (University of California at San Francisco). With his permission, I would like to share some of his letter with you. I hope that you may find it of interest.

Rick's letter

Every day we have had support in so many ways that it continues to amaze us. Several days a week, friends have dropped off meals for us. This has freed time that would otherwise be spent shopping, planning, cooking, and cleaning to take care of Tania and (her younger sister) Rachel. It leaves us feeling spiritually and emotionally, as well as physically, nourished by our community.